


A Slip of the Hand

by Galehawthornes



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Adult Content, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Blood and Gore, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 07:08:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4657263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galehawthornes/pseuds/Galehawthornes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gale Hawthorne has had a rough time all of his life, but faces the ultimate challenge when he attends the 74th annual Hunger Games. His strength and determination will drive him towards success. But will his cockiness and uncivilized behavior be the course of his downfall?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Slip of the Hand

⇛ Chapter One: A New Beginning

My eyes flicker open and begin to adjust the incoming dull light coming from the ruffled curtains. I reach my hand up to my face and rub my eye to compensate the brightness as I begin to sit up. The more my eyes adjust, the more I begin to realize where I am. 

I am not even in my house. 

My eyes fully adjust and I spot all of my clothing on the ground, not like this is the first time this incident has happened to me. My feet meet the floor and I quietly walk to the small window and peer out the light blue curtains. I quickly praise the fact I am in the seam rather then the merchant district. Sleeping with a merchants daughter in my state usually results in peacekeepers patrolling my front door for a week which is never appealing. I then turn to the bed I was resting in minutes ago and spot a familiar face, which is once again a relief. My thoughts begin to flow clearly again and the beautiful girls face begins to register in my mind. 

Her name is Natalia. Just like everyone else in my grade, I've known her since primary school. As time progressed, cute features became beautiful ones and I asked her to be my girlfriend around the first couple weeks when school was back in session. If I were to use technicalities, anyone would consider her to be a typical Seam girl. With the combination of her gray eyes and black hair, she defiantly classifies under the Seam profile. Her hair is naturally curly which is unusual but it defiantly makes sense when she is around her mother. 

I am forced to advert my eyes away from the bed and towards my clothes. As I begin to dress myself in my articles of clothing I realize that I have a major benefit - I am the first one awake in the house. I slip on my shirt and make my way towards the decorated window to open the hatch. The window pops right open and I step out feet first so my body is resting on the foot of the window. I grab a nearby tree and use my hands to maneuver myself down the tree until I land on my feet. I typically attend to the woods every morning but the fact that the sun has already began to rise I skipped the idea. 

It doesn't take me long to arrive to my house and I try my best to stay as silent as I possibly could, not wanting to wake any of my siblings. I slip inside the house and carefully shut the door behind me but I quickly realize that it wasn't enough. 

Shit. 

"Gale Steel Hawthorne, I was worries sick about you." My mother calls from the kitchen and hurries towards me. I should have know she would have been up at this hour - she has to make two meals for four mouths while the sun rises. 

I roll my eyes and shake my head "Ma I'm fine, I always am." I groan as she frantically moves her hands towards my cheeks. 

"You know I hate it when you don't come home after dark and you know your brothers and sister don't either. You're seventeen and you need to be responsible, you know that." She sighs deeply while removing her hands from my face and our eyes meet. And she is right, ever since the mining incident three years ago - I am the main support for our family. 

"Well don't worry I wasn't dead or anything." I chuckle and take a boastful approach, as usual.

"Damn, what a shame you aren't dead." My brother Rory buds in as he waltzes into the kitchen to join our conversation. 

"Rory do not swear like that, do you understand?" My mother groans and begins to prepare something on the kitchen counter. 

"I'll stop when he stops." My younger brother bumps into me and heads towards the pantry in search for breakfast. He recently turned fourteen and is quickly growing in height and was way more then any other member in our family to compensate the growth spurts. 

"When mom says watch your mouth, she means it and I don't need you talking back." I tell my brother and raise my eyebrow as I walk over and stand beside my mother and grab a couple plates for my family. Even though I am Rory's older brother, I am forced to act as a father as well. At the moment he doesn't just need a brother, he needs something more to teach him what is right and what is wrong. 

My brother nods quickly and walks into the kitchen and begins to fill his plate with whatever my mom has to offer. It is very important not to waste food, especially when winter is beginning to take effect. I am able to catch less game in the winter and my mother finds it harder and harder to find clothes to wash. Not to mention, the mining production slows and more accidents occur and it hits most of the district hard. 

I make my way up the steps and I pass Rory's room which happens to be where my other brother, Vick sleeps. Before completely passing the other room, I peer my head inside where my two younger brothers sleep and Vick is already dressed and making his bed. He is defiantly quieter than Rory and I but I try to make him laugh as often as I can. I nod once to myself and head to the room at the very end of the hall, my sisters. She is only three years old and never had the chance to lay eyes on her own father. 

I open the door to the small, dark room and look around for the undersized girl to appear.  
Suddenly a small figure grabs onto my leg with a small giggle and a big smile. 

"Hey! It my favorite girl in the whole world." I smile down to her and carefully pick her up and she wraps her arms around my neck and I open the door even wider to let the light fill into the room. My sister, Posy had respectively managed to dress herself, making it just that much easier for me. 

"Where were you yesterday? We all waited for you." She asks and leans her head against my shoulder. I exit the room and begin to walk down the stairs to stall for a bit of time. 

"We are going to come down and eat breakfast." I say quickly to change the subject and she nods, not even acknowledging the unanswered question. My mother and two brother have already began to eat the breakfast my mother had prepared a few minutes earlier. I sit Posy down into her chair and prepare her of plate of a small piece of toast and a small bowl of oatmeal. 

I scrape the last bits of food into a bowl and sit at the head of the table. I sit myself into a heated discussion about wether or not the neighbors across the street will be evicted from their unit. Bad news in the seam traveled fast and it happened to spark interest in the family when Rory was interviewed by peacekeepers about how the young couple acted when the authorizes were not around. As expect, he held back information regarding the couple.

"You can get arrested for lying to them you idiot!" My brother yells from across the table and gives a glare to his older brother. Vick is only nine but he seems to know more than his elder brother, Rory.

"Vick it doesn't matter, it's not like they deserve to be kicked out onto the street. You don't have to follow the rules all the time you know." Rory says and scowls back at his younger brother while finishing his oatmeal and standing up and putting the bowl into the kitchen sink and grabbing his school books. 

"Now hurry up and finish so we can walk to your stupid class." Rory huffs while Vick scurries to the kitchen as well and drops off his empty plate and hurrying to his brother. 

That was the routine everyday. Rory would walk with Vick to school and I would walk my sister Posy. This year was her first year of school for the young girl and my mother defiantly felt the withdraws. But, Posy has seemed to be a very societal girl for her age and quickly made friends in her new school. It would be a safe bet to say that Posy is closer to me than anyone else in the house, mostly since she has been starting school and spending a significantly shorter period of time with my mom.

My mother grabs a heap of lunches from the counter and abruptly shoves them towards my brothers. The door opens and she never hesitates kissing both of my brother on the forehead, even if they do groan and act in disgust. I pick up my sister from her chair and set her down onto her feet before I place our plates with the other on the kitchen countertop. My mother does not mess around with the minor alone time she is able to have with her daughter and she is on her knees, giving the small girl a hug. 

"See you at noon." My mother whispers to the small girl and kisses her nose. Posy nods and I make my way towards the two and my sister grabs my hand. I hold both of our lunches in my hand along with my textbooks while still being able to manage holding the bijou hand that is attached to my sister. My mother kisses me on the cheek while we head out the door and I show no regard towards the action except for a small smile. My mother, Hazelle, is without a doubt one of the strongest women I have ever come across. She is a small woman and is still considerably young for someone who has had four children. When my father died, she did not take the loss well but she refused to quit her job and stay at home, even when she was pregnant with my sister Posy. I have to admit that she is quite beautiful and could have easier remarried but I guess she became quite particular after my father passed away. 

The door shuts behind us and I continue to hold my sisters hand as we walk towards the schools. It was always convenient to walk my siblings school because they were all located in a close proximity to one another. The elementary school was central in the schooling system and directly beside it stood the preschool. Then the high school was centralized a couple blocks down to separate us from the younger children. 

I check the time on the master clock located on top of the justice building and I can already tell I will be late to my first class of the day. My sister can only walk so fast and she always walk a bit slower in the mornings, mostly in the cold. But we end up arriving to her classroom and she grabs her lunch and giving me a small smile so I bend down in front of her. 

"Ma will be here to pick you up, okay?" I ask her and she wraps her arms around my neck and gives me a hug. Then she pulls away after a minute and nods a little and scurries off to the other side of the room to put her lunch away where he cubby is mark "Posy". 

Just then, I turn to head out of the classroom and that's when I bump into a woman who appears to be from the seam and a few years older than I am. She smiles a bit and looks up at me while she begins to tilt her head. 

"Oh I'm sorry." She says in a low tone and puts her hand in the middle of my chest. She ironically doesn't move away from the door as she apologizes for being in the way in the first place. But, I hint her desire and I don't have time to mess around with lonely housewives, I have classes to attend. 

"No worries, just in a hurry." I say quickly and turn away from her and head out the door. I smirk to myself and adjust the remaining lunch and books in my hand as I head across the street to my school. I continue to walk across the seam and run my fingers through my hair and don't even bother to turn back to the preschool.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! New story here and it will be about Gale and his travels to the 74th annual hunger games. But I first wanted to inform you on some well deserved family plot to help understand where he is coming from. Thank you so much for reading :)


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